Academic Historian

Tekla Ali Johnson earned a Ph.D. in history with an emphasis in African American Studies at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. At UNL she studied World System Theory with Andre Gunder Frank and, Africology and Kawaida Methodology at the Black Studies Department at UNO, with Dr. James Conyers. As a former traveling spouse, Ali Johnson taught Africana Studies on a number of campuses including:  North Carolina A & T State University, Johnson C. Smith University and Salem College in North Carolina, Harris Stowe State and Clarkson University. She has served as Coordinator of the African & African American Studies Minor, Coordinator of the History Program, and co-founder of an emerging Concentration in Public History.  From 2010-2014 She taught Africana Studies, Public History, and Women’s History at a women’s college. After a residency at the James Weldon Johnson African American Interdisciplinary Institute at Emory University, and an encounter there with the archives and person of Alice Walker, Ali Johnson acquired a degree in library science with an emphasis on Archives.  Her first book ‘Free Radical’: Ernest Chambers, Black Power, and the Politics of Race (Texas Tech University Press, 2012) earned a national book award from the National Council of Black Studies, 2013, and a State Book award from Nebraska. Dr. Ali Johnson is a member of the faculty at the University of South Carolina where she teaches African American and Africana Studies. Her research focus is social justice.  Ali Johnson is the Acting Secretary of the national Black Power Archives Collective.  Her Current research includes a study of the mid-west chapter of the Black Panther Party, and forced relocation of African Americans through urban renewal. She is co-writing a manuscript entitled Forgotten Comrades.

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Dr. Ali Johnson offers Diversity Training for Groups and Corporations. Please call 704-449-0349 for more information.

St. Martin De Porres Club (1947- )

The St. Martin De Porres Club was founded in 1947 by Father John P. Markoe, S.J., a  priest, and Creighton University students interested in local civil rights issues in Omaha, Nebraska.   Father Markoe was assigned to St. Benedict the Moor Parish at 2423 Grant Street … Read MoreSt. Martin De Porres Club (1947- )

Henry Plummer Cheatham (1857-1935)

Born into slavery in Henderson, North Carolina, Henry Cheatham was the child of an enslaved domestic worker about who little is known.  An adolescent after the American Civil War, Cheatham benefited from country’s short lived commitment to provide educational opportunities to all children.  He attended … Read MoreHenry Plummer Cheatham (1857-1935)

Wilmington Race Riot of 1898

A politically motivated attack by whites against the city’s leading African American citizens, the Wilmington Race Riot of 1898 documents the lengths to which white Democrats went to regain political domination of the South after Reconstruction.  The violence began on Thursday, November 10 in the … Read MoreWilmington Race Riot of 1898

Joseph Alfred McNeil (1942- )

One of the four North Carolina Agricultural & Technical freshmen who initiated the Sit-In Movement at Greensboro, North Carolina. A native of North Carolina, Joseph McNeil saw Greensboro’s race relations as a mirror image of the social structure of most southern cities. McNeil recalls having … Read MoreJoseph Alfred McNeil (1942- )

Franklin Eugene McCain (1941-2014)

Franklin McCain was born on January 3, 1941 in Union County, North Carolina.  He grew up in Washington, D.C. but returned to his native North Carolina to attend college at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University. McCain and his roommate, David Richmond, had followed … Read MoreFranklin Eugene McCain (1941-2014)

Ernest William Chambers (1937- )

Ernest William Chambers, Africana intellectual, has lived in the semi-segregated community of North Omaha, Nebraska for his entire life. A community activist in the 1960s, Chambers rode into office in the Nebraska State Legislature on the crest of new-black electoral power in 1970. As a … Read MoreErnest William Chambers (1937- )

George Henry White (1852-1918)

George H. White served as a member of the fifty-fifth and fifty-sixth United States Congresses (March 4, 1897-March 3, 1901) from North Carolina’s Second Congressional District during what historian Rayford Logan has termed the nadir in race relations for the post-Reconstruction South. Born in Rosindale, … Read MoreGeorge Henry White (1852-1918)